Reality Meets Reality

This is an easy one to write about but it is a reflection of a society we live in today. This morning I was plodding through a few internet sites and found this story on Judge Judy posted on the Forbes website. Here is the story:

Since Judge Judy debuted in 1996, the irascible former family court judge continues to dominate the daytime reality courtroom genre, spawning countless copycats. (The genre was all but written off following the demise of The People's Court in 1993.) Her $100 million, four-year contract, signed in 2004, makes her one of the highest-paid women in television. She has been nominated eight times for an Emmy award and written four books, all of which became national bestsellers

Judge Judy makes more money than all of our Supreme Court Justices combined!! We could also make a statement that the President of the United States (who runs a 1.2 trillion dollar budget) has a salary per year that can not match Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen of television sitcom fame. Yes.. the President does have perks such as Air Force One, Camp David, Secret Service protection.

Yet one can easily see that we have a society that is more concerned about being entertained than actually creating a government that rewards competence. This is not a shock to anyone in society that actually follows the news. I just heard someone say something on the radio comparing American Idol ratings to that of President Bush's State of The Union Address. Here is a bigger question: Could we have more people voting on American Idol than in our election?. I know it is absurd to even bring up such a question but have we become a society that needs to be entertained in order to get involved in the act of voting??